[QUOTE=afterglow;13376334]1. Great Wall - deciding between Mutainyu or Simatai. Will bring the kids for this one but won't be doing the hike.

If you're going as far as Simatai you might as well venture just a few km further to Panlong Shan, vastly less touristy and renovated just enough to keep it together rather than rebuilt. No sideshows or cable cars, but easily mounted and fairly easy to proceed in either direction to spectacular views.

I'd omit. A real tourist bun-fight and the only excavated tomb, which you queue to descend to, has little in it. For tombs you need to make a day-trip to the Eastern or Western Qing tombs. Use the time elsewhere.

Hou Hai is now seriously tawdry, over-flowing with tacky bars blaring music transplanted from Sanlitun. I'd think of another location. If you want ease of use, charm, the more imaginative end of souvenirs, and choice of Chinese and foreign food, you might consider Nan Luogu Xiang.

Warning that Wangfujing will not impress anyone used to malls/shopping centres in the West. With the exception of the nominal presence of one or two lao zi hao ('time-honoured brands'--cloth shoes and hats, in particular) there's neither charm nor much in the way of Chineseness here, and plenty of foreign brands. A big Nike store, for instance.

Presumably this is the dreaded Hong Qiao? Then it's looking, no shopping. There are no real antiques on sale in China. None at all. If you are not an expert don't shop. If you are an expert you'll see nothing to buy. The same goes for pearls. There's a toy market just behind Hong Qiao with knock-off games and toys of all kinds, however.

Note: now easily reached by metro. Line 4 to Bei Gong Men station.

Zoo with caution. It has improved, but a dash into the panda enclosure and then an exit is probably best. Kindness and animals are not often seen together in China (notable exception: the Milu Deer Park well to the south of the city centre). And the aquarium? Why spend time on something you can get at home? If you're simply thinking of amusing the children then there's also the planetarium just across the road to the south, and the Ancient Animals exhibition (with dinosaur skeletons) just west of that, only a few mins walk. But wouldn't the time be better spent on something truly Chinese?

Well... made for tourists and over priced. And Shanghai is the real home of acrobatics (although very many of the performers supposedly come from the same Hebei village).

Chengde requires an overnight at least. An early morning bus (from Liuli Qiao) or more conveniently from the side of the road at San Yuan Qiao opposite the new Novotel to Chengde, followed by an afternoon and the following morning scampering round, and an early afternoon train ride back.

Peter N-H
China